Written Answers Friday 11 March 2005

Scottish Executive

Civil Servants

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with Her Majesty's Government regarding the viability of the Department for Work and Pensions' operations in Scotland following cuts in civil servant numbers.

Malcolm Chisholm: The Scottish Executive is in regular contact with the Department for Work and Pensions on a variety of issues including the impact of the Department’s service delivery plans.

Football

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what level of funding it has allocated from the Scottish Consolidated Fund for investment in youth football in each year since 1999.

Ms Patricia Ferguson: All Executive funding for youth football in Scotland funded from the Scottish Consolidated fund is administered by  sportscotland and awarded to organisations against specific programmes and initiatives or through the application-based programme Sportsmatch.

  Youth football would have benefited from the awards made from the Scottish Consolidated Fund set out in the following table. However, it is not possible to quantify the precise amount of the award which has benefited youth football. In addition to these, a contribution was made in 2002-03 towards the costs of the review of youth football carried out by independent consultants.

  

Year
Annual Development Grant Aid
Sportsmatch


SFA
SWFA
No. of awards
£


1999-2000
48,000
18,000
27
44,202


2000-01
48,000
18,000
29
44,832


2001-02
48,000
18,000
54
117,967.47


2002-03
100,000
18,000
22
72,800


2003-04
100,000
28,500*
27
80,243.85



  Note: *18 month award.

Football

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what level of funding it plans to allocate from the Scottish Consolidated Fund for investment in youth football for each of the next nine years.

Ms Patricia Ferguson: The Executive has committed £1.2 million from the Scottish Consolidated Fund to support the implementation of the Action Plan for Youth Football over a 10 year period. It will be for the Implementation Steering Group to determine how and when the funding is to be allocated against agreed work programmes and targets.

Football

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-13631 by Patricia Ferguson on 31 January 2005, whether any part of the £31.1 million 10-year action plan for youth football will be funded from the Scottish Consolidated Fund.

Ms Patricia Ferguson: The Executive has committed £1.2 million from the Scottish Consolidated Fund to support the implementation of the Action Plan for Youth Football over a 10 year period.

Football

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-6333 by Mr Frank McAveety on 15 March 2004, when it expects the legal complications surrounding the transfer of funds from the Football Stadia Improvement Fund to the Scottish Football Partnership to be resolved.

Ms Patricia Ferguson: It is extremely disappointing that the legal complications affecting the transfer of the funds from the Football Stadia Improvement Fund to the Scottish Football Partnership have not yet been resolved. I am given to understand though that it is expected that the outstanding issues should shortly be resolved and that the transfer of the funds will be completed as quickly as possible thereafter.

Justice

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the existing rules and regulations are in respect of notifying victims of crime of the release of prisoners from custody and whether there are any plans to amend these rules and regulations.

Hugh Henry: Section 16 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003, which commenced on 1 November 2004, determines the conditions under which victims of crime are given an opportunity to be notified when a prisoner is released, dies in custody, is transferred outwith Scotland, becomes eligible for early release or is unlawfully at large. These conditions require that the offender who perpetrated the offence against the victim must have been sentenced to four or more years imprisonment or detention and must have been convicted of a prescribed offence.

  The Victim Notification (Prescribed Offences) (Scotland) Order 2004 (SSI 2004/411), which came into force on 1 November 2004, prescribes the offences for which a victim will be entitled to receive information relating to the person who perpetrated the offence against them.

  Ministers may, by order, change the conditions set out in section 16 of the 2003 Act by amending the period of time to which an offender must have been sentenced, by adding to the information that victims can receive or by altering the list of prescribed offences.

  The legislation governing the release of information to victims has been in effect since 1 November 2004. Its effect on victims is subject to evaluation. Once that evaluation is complete, Ministers will consider what changes, if any, are required to the conditions set out in section 16 of the 2003 Act.

Land Compensation (Scotland) Act 1973

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive when a review of the home loss payments established under the Land Compensation (Scotland) Act 1973 last took place and when the next review will take place.

Malcolm Chisholm: Levels of Home Loss Payment were last reviewed in 1991. Ministers will take a view on any possible review in due course.

Licensing

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many public house licences were withdrawn due to the sale of alcohol to (a) individuals below the minimum legal age and (b) inebriated individuals in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority area.

Tavish Scott: I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-14224 answered on 25 February 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at:  http://www.scottish.parliament/webapp/wa.search .

National Identity Register

Patrick Harvie (Glasgow) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive when it will make a statement on its intended use of the national identification database.

Mr Tom McCabe: As has been stated on more than one occasion, the Scottish Executive has no plans to make provision of any devolved service dependent on an individual being registered on the National Identity Register. Should that position change, it would require an Act of the Scottish Parliament - clause 44 of the Bill makes this clear.

  The Bill would give the Home Secretary regulated power to disclose information from the Register to the Scottish police for the prevention and detection of crime. Scottish Ministers recognise the need to ensure that Scottish police are not unduly hampered in their ability to prevent and detect serious crime. However, conferring power on a UK government minister to disclose information from a register established for intrinsically reserved purposes is outwith the competence of the Scottish Parliament.

  In response to the recent suggestions that a Sewel motion is required in respect of clauses 17(6) and 18(4), both of which state "in this section ‘enactment’ includes an enactment comprised in an Act of the Scottish Parliament", I can confirm that this is not the case. The references to ASPs reflect the fact that the Scottish Parliament would have power to require registration on the National Identity Register for devolved purposes. The provisions address the consequences that would flow from any such requirement.

  Neither clause alters: devolved purposes; the legislative competence of the Parliament; or the executive competence of Scottish Ministers. No Sewel motion is therefore required.

Police

Rosie Kane (Glasgow) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive what input it has to the formulation of police policy on stopping and questioning children in the street.

Cathy Jamieson: This is an operational matter for chief constables. However, the police have an important role to play in partnership working to prevent harm to children. If, for example, the police are concerned about the behaviour of a child, they may want to contact a child’s school’s guidance teacher so that additional support or early intervention could be considered, before reaching the stage of criminal charges or referral to the Children’s Reporter.

Social Justice

Patrick Harvie (Glasgow) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive which of its 29 social justice milestones have been met; whether it experienced any difficulties measuring milestones and, if so, which of the milestones were difficult to measure and why.

Malcolm Chisholm: Our last report on progress towards the social justice milestones ( Social Justice: Indicators of Progress 2003 ) showed that 17 of the milestones were moving in the right direction. Since then, one of the milestones (number 12) has been achieved. We were unable to measure one milestone (number 26) because of insufficient data. The latest data on the milestones continues to be made available on our Closing the Opportunity Gap webpages: www.scotland.gov.uk/closingtheopportunitygap .

Telecommunications

Mr Mark Ruskell (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the capabilities which mmO2 agreed to supply in its initial contract have been supplied to the police forces to which the TETRA system has so far been rolled out.

Cathy Jamieson: The Airwave system is being rolled out to Scottish police forces in the phased manner specified in the contract. Some system functions have not yet been provided, for example, discrete listening, call forwarding of group and individual calls, and forwarding short text messages. The Association of Chief Police Officers Scotland and the Police Information Technology Organisation are in discussion with O2 about these matters.

Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body

Holyrood Project

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body on what date it obtained legal advice in respect of its legal remedies in relation to Flour City Architectural Metals (UK) Ltd; whether that advice contained recommendations that further inquiries be made and, if so, and whether those inquiries have been made and whether they have been completed, and whether that advice recommended, in particular, that any documents be obtained from the construction managers and, if so, whether those documents have been obtained.

George Reid: : A report containing legal advice on the Flour City issues was received on 4 December 2002, and was first considered at a meeting of the corporate body on 17 December 2002. The advice contained a number of recommendations, and the corporate body has been and continues to be guided by that advice. The advice received includes the recommendation that its contents should be kept confidential and not publicly discussed, so as not to prejudice the SPCB’s position. Accordingly, and for this reason, I am not prepared at this time to provide further details as to what steps have been taken or are planned.